- This article is about the Hindu God Śiva. For other uses of the word, see Śiva (disambiguation)
- Aghora redirects here. For Aghora, the band, see Aghora (band).
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Lord Śiva. The water flowing from his locks is a depiction of the River Ganga considered to be a goddess in Hinduism. In the Puranas, when Ganga descended from the heavens, the Earth could not bear her flow so Lord Śiva agreed to bear it. Lord Śiva's skin turned bluish as he drank the Halahala poison that came out of the Churning of the ocean of milk.
Shiva (Sanskrit: शिव, and written Śiva in the official IAST transliteration) is a form of Eashwara or God in the Vedic scriptures or as corrupted in Hinduism. Adi Sankara interprets the name Śiva to mean "One who purifies everyone by the utterance of His name" or the Pure One, that is, one who is not affected by the three gunas (characteristics) of Prakrti (matter): Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas. However, Śiva is commonly known as "the destroyer." Additionally, Śiva can also mean, "the Auspicious One." He is often depicted as the husband of Uma. In the process of creation, Lord Shiva is the primeval being and creates the other members of the trimurti. He is symbolized by the wisdom of the Serpent.
Śiva is the third form of God as the Destroyer, one of the trimurti (popularly called the "Hindu trinity"). In the trimurti, Śiva is the destroyer, while Brahma and Vishnu are creator and preserver, respectively. However, even though he represents destruction, he is viewed as a positive force (The Destroyer of Evil), since creation follows destruction. Worshippers of Śiva are called Śaivites who consider Śiva the only Ultimate Reality (see Ishta-Deva for fuller discussion).
Śiva is not limited to the personal characteristics as he is given in many images and can transcend all attributes. Hence, Śiva is often worshipped in an abstract manner, as God without form, in the form of linga. This view is similar in some ways to the view of God in Semitic religions such as Islam or Judaism, which hold that God has no personal characteristics. Hindus, on the other hand, believe that God can transcend all personal characteristics yet can also have personal characteristics for the grace of the embodied human devotee. Personal characteristics are a way for the devotee to focus on God.
Śiva is Anaadi (without beginning/birth) and ananta (without end/death). These are the same words that describe Karma.
According to the Bhagavata Purana, Lord Śiva appeared from the forehead of Lord Brahma. When Lord Brahma asked his sons, the Four Kumaras, to go forth and create progeny in the universe, they refused. This angered Lord Brahma and in his anger a child appeared from his forehead, which split into two - a male part and a female part. The male half started crying inconsolable and as a result, Brahma named him Rudra. The child cried seven more times and each time Brahma gave him a separate name. The eight names thus given to the child were Rudra, Sharva, Bhava, Ugra, Bhima, Pashupati, Ishana, and Mahadeva. Each of these eight names are said to be associated with specific elements of the cosmos, namely the earth, water, fire, wind, sky, a yogi called Kshetragya, the sun, and the moon respectively. This male child became Lord Śiva, who was asked to go forth and create progeny, but when Lord Brahma observed the power, as they shared the qualities of Lord Śiva, he asked him to observe austerities instead of creating progeny. A slightly different version is told in the Shiva Purana: in the Śiva Purana, Śiva promises Brahma that an aspect of his, Rudra, will be born and this aspect is identical to Him.
The tale about Lord Śiva being born and immediately splitting into two halves of male and female indicates the origin of the Ardhanarishvara - the union of substance and energy, the Being and his Shakti (force).
Śiva is the supreme God of Śaivism, one of the three main branches of Hinduism today (the others being Vaishnavism and Shaktism). His abode is called Kailasa. His holy mount (called vahana in Sanskrit) is Nandi, the Bull. His attendant is named Bhadra. Śiva is usually represented by the Śiva linga (or lingam). He is generally represented in Hindu tradition as immersed in deep meditation, on Mount Kailash (reputed to be the same as the Mount Kailash in the south of Tibet, near Manasarovar Lake) in the Himalaya, his traditional abode.
Śiva's consort is Devi, God's energy or God as the Divine Mother who comes in many different forms, one of whom is Kali, the goddess of death. Parvati, a more pacific form of Devi is also popular. Śiva also married Sati, another form of Devi and daughter of Daksha, who forbade the marriage. Sati disobeyed her father. Daksha once held a Yajna (ritual sacrifice) to Vishnu, but did not invite Śiva. In disgust, Sati burned herself through yogic meditation (or, in another version, in the same fire Daksha used in his sacrifice). Śiva arrived at the scene, angry at the death of his wife, and killed many of the guests, as well as decapitating Daksha, though he later replaced his head with that of a goat. Śiva created the monster Virabhadra during his quarrel with Daksha, and he was the leader of Śiva's men who came to prevent Daksha from conducting the Yajna. According to legend (Śiva Purana, Ramcharitmanas and other Hindu scriptures), this same Sati was reborn in the house of Himavat (Himalaya mountain-range personified) and performed a great tapa (sequence of austerities, culminating in sustained meditation on the object desired, which in this case, was the Lord Śiva). This tapa caused Śiva to break his Samadhi (state of deep, usually ecstatic meditation) and accept Parvati as his consort.
Śiva gave Parashurama his axe. Śiva's great bow is called Pināka and thus he is also called Pinaki. Most depictions of Śiva show the three-pointed spear Trishula, another of his weapons, in the background.
Śiva and Parvati are the parents of Karttikeya (also known as Murugan in South India) and Ganesha (also known as Vinayaka, or Vinayagar in South India), the elephant-headed God of wisdom. He acquired his head due to the actions of Śiva, who decapitated him because Ganesha refused to allow him to enter the house while Parvati was bathing. Śiva had to give him the new head to placate his wife. In another version, Parvati showed the child off to Shani (the planet Saturn), whose gaze burned his head to ashes, which Brahma told Śiva to replace with the first head he could find, an elephant. Karttikeya is a six-headed god (thus called shadaanan, the one with six heads, Sanskrit: shad, six + aanan, face, head) and was conceived to kill the demon Tarakasura, who had proven invincible against other gods.
According to the foundation myth of Kaalism, Kali (pronounced Kaahli) came into existence when Śiva looked into himself; she is his mirror image.
In another version, she had gone out to kill demons but she went on a rampage. To stop her, Śiva went and lay down on the ground in front of her path. When she stepped on him, she looked down and realized that she had just stepped on Śiva. Feeling ashamed, she bit her tongue, and the rampage ended.
As Nataraja, Śiva is the Lord of the Dance, and also symbolises the dance of the Universe/Nature, with all its delicately balanced heavenly bodies and natural laws which complement and balance each other. At times, he is also symbolized as doing his great dance of destruction, called Tandava (Pronounced with a soft 't' and a hard 'd'), at the time of pralaya, or dissolution of the universe at the end of every Kalpa.
Some Hindus (non-Saivaites), especially Smartas, believe Śiva to be one of many different forms of the universal Atman, or Brahman, a monistic entity to which all things (essentially), and Śiva, as form of God are identical. Others see him as the one true God from whom all the other deities and principles are emanations, essentially a monotheistic understanding usually related to the bhakti sects of Śaivism.
Although he is defined as a destroyer (or rather recreator), Śiva, along with Vishnu, is considered the most benevolent God. One of his names is Aashutosh, he who is easy to please, or, he who gives a lot in return for a little.
Traditionally, unlike Vishnu, Śiva does not have any avatars. However, several persons have been claimed as embodiments of him, such as Adi Shankara. Some people consider Hanuman to be an aspect of Śiva.
Nayanars (or Nayanmars), saints from Southern India, were mostly responsible for development of Śaivism in the Middle Ages.
The important Śaivite sects were Kashmir Śaivaites from Northern India, Lingayats and Virasaivas from Southern India. Saiva Siddhanta is a major Śaivite theory developed in Southern India.
This is not complete yet. More details on Śaivite texts/schools needed.
Śiva's life is depicted in short stage dramas to help his devotees (particularly nayanmars). This is greatly explained in Thiruvilayadalpuram. Basically all this happened in South India, mostly Tamil Nadu.
Śiva is an aspect of God or Saguna Brahman, (i.e. God with form) who Hindus pray to. In trimurti concept, he is the aspect of God (i.e., God as the Destroyer) of the trimurti (also called the Hindu Trinity), along with Brahma and Vishnu.
In Advaita philosophy aspects of God such as Śiva or Vishnu are personal attributes of the impersonal Nirguna Brahman, God without attributes, the type of God similar in Semitic religions such as Islam or Judaism (i.e., God without form or without personal characteristics.) The term "Hindu god" should not be equated with Śiva and is confused with Devas. Devas, or demigods, are celestial beings similar to angels in Judaeo-Christian traditions. Deva in Sanskrit literally means "shining being".
In Gaudiya Vaishnavism he is considered the best of devotees of Vishnu (vaisnavanam yatha sambhu) and also an aspect of Vishnu. The example of milk and yogurt is used to describe their difference in Brahma Samhita. He is depicted as meditating on Sankarsana, an expansion of Balarama. He also plays an important role in Krishna-lila as Kshetra-pala, protector of Vrindavan, holy dham of Krishna. As Gopisvara Mahadeva he also guards rasa-lila grounds. Authorship of Sri Sri Radha-krpa-kataksa-stava-raja (aka Radha Stava) (text and translation), from Urdhvamnaya Tantra, is ascribed to him. This tantra, nowadays available only in parts, is praised in chapter 3 of Kularnava Tantra as 'the secret of secrets'.
Siva is an icon of masculinity. In mythology and folklore, he can be interpreted to inspire masculine characteristics of the most extreme: absolute virility and fertility (even thought he is infertile himself); aggression, rage and supreme powers in war; his resolve, meditation is absolute, as is his love for his wife, Uma.
Origin
Śiva does not occur in the Vedic hymns as the name of a god, but as an adjective in the sense of "kind", or "auspicious". One of his synonyms, however, is the name of a Vedic deity, the attributes and nature of which show a good deal of similarity to the post-Vedic Rudra, the god of the roaring storm, usually portrayed in accordance with the element he represents, as a fierce, destructive deity, terrible as a wild beast, whose fearful arrows cause death and disease to men and cattle. He is also called bapardin (wearing his hair spirally braided like a shell), one of the synonyms of Śiva. The Atharva Veda mentions several other names of the same god, some of which appear even placed together, as in one passage Bhava, Sarva, Rudra and Pasupati. Possibly some of them were the names under which one and the same deity was already worshipped in different parts of northern India. This was certainly the case in later times, since it is expressly stated in one of the later works of the Brahmana period, that Sarva was used by the Eastern people and Bhava by a Western tribe. It is also worthy of note that in the same work, composed at a time when the Vedic triad of Agni, Indra-Vayu and Surya was still recognized, attempts are made to identify Śiva of many names with Agni; and that in one passage in the Mahabharata it is stated that the Brahmins said that Agni was Śiva.
It is in his character as destroyer that Śiva holds his place in the triad, and that he must, no doubt, be identified with the Vedic Rudra. Another very important function appears, however, to have been early assigned to him, on which much more stress is laid in his modern worship, that of destroyer being more especially exhibited in his consort, viz, the character of a generative power, symbolized in the emblem representing Him, (linga) and in the sacred bull (Nandi), His favorite attendant. The non-Aryans have worshipped the linga as a phallic symbol. This feature, however, is entirely alien from the nature of the Vedic god, it has been conjectured with some plausibility, that the linga-worship was originally prevalent among the non-Aryan population, and was thence introduced into the worship of Śiva. On the other hand, there can, we think, be little doubt that Śiva, in his generative faculty, is the representative of another Vedic god whose nature and attributes go far to account for this particular feature of the modern deity, viz. Pushan.
Śiva, originally, no doubt, a solar deity, is frequently invoked, as the lord of nourishment, to bestow food, wealth and other blessings. He is once, jointly with Soma, called the progenitor of heaven and earth, and is connected with the marriage ceremony, where he is asked to lead the bride to the bridegroom and make her prosperous (civatama). Moreover, he has the epithet bapardin (spirally braided), as have Rudra and the later Śiva, and is called Par upa, or guardian of cattle, whence the latter derives his name Parupati.
Parupa is a strong, powerful, and even fierce and destructive aspect of god, who, with his goad or golden spear, smites the foes of his worshipper, and thus in this respect offers at least some points of similarity to Rudra, which may have favored the fusion of the two gods into a monotheistic conception of God, into Śiva.
In the mid 20th century, scholars like Ragula Sangiruthiyayan tried to show how the various ancient religious practices were consolidated together by the rigourous effort of Chanakya led team during Gupta Dynasty. According to this school of thought, Rudra and other hunter and forest Gods were collectively brought into the charecteristics of one Godly person Shiva. This God was then accepted as orginated from Brahma of Brahmins. Similarly, various other smaller gods of southern and western india were related to one single God, namely Vishunu whom then related to Rama of Aryan tribes who also was accepted as created by Brahma. However, such consolidation was incomplete for many centuries and several communities within India could never come under one umbrella till the period of British when all the Indians other than those who converted to Islam and Christianity were collectively labelled as Hindus.
See: Jyotirlinga
References to Śiva as female may have these origins:-
(1) Europeans guessing wrong from the -a on the end of his name.
(2) Sometimes, his consort Pārvatī is called Shivā (with the end vowel long).
Names of Śiva
The Shiva Purana lists a 1008 names for Lord Śiva. Each of his names, in Sanskrit, signifies a certain attribute of his. Some of his names are listed below
- Mahadeva (The Supreme Lord : Maha = great, Deva = God - more often than not, the Aghora (fierce) version)
- Rudra (The one who howls or strict and uncompromising)
- Maheshwar (The Supreme Lord: Maha = great, Eshwar = God)
- Mahayogi (The Supreme Yogi: Maha = great, Yogi = one who practices Yoga)
- Mahabaleshwar (Great God of Strength: Maha = great, Bal = strength, Eshwar = God)
- Trinetra (Three-Eyed One, i.e. All-Knowing: Tri = three, Netra = Eye)
- Triaksha (Three-Eyed One, i.e. All-Knowing: Tri = three, Aksha = Eye)
- Trinayana (Three-Eyed One, i.e. All-Knowing: Tri = three, Nayana = Eye)
- Tryambakam (Three-Eyed One, i.e. All-Knowing: Tri = three, Ambakam = Eye)
- Mahakala (Great Time, i.e. Conqueror of Time: Maha = three, Kala = Time)
- Neelakantha (The one with a Blue Throat: Neel = blue, Kantha = throat)
- Digambara (One who has the skies as his clothes, i.e. The Naked One: Dik = Clothes, Ambara = Sky)
- Shankara (Giver of Joy)
- Shambhu (Abode of Joy)
- Vyomkesha (The One who has the sky as his hair: Vyom = sky, Kesha =hair)
- Chandrashekhara (The master of the Moon: Chandra = Moon, Shekhara = master)
- Siddheshwara (The Perfect Lord)
- Trishuldhari (He who holds the divine Trishul or Trident: Trishul = Trident, Dhari = He who holds)
- Dakhshinamurthi (The Cosmic Tutor)
- Kailashpati (He whose abode is Mount Kailash)
- Pashupatinath (Lord of all Creatures)
- Umapati (The husband of Uma)
- Gangadhar (He who holds the river Ganga)
- Bhairava (The Frightful One)
Pasupati and Shakti
The Pasupati (Lord of the Beasts) emblem on a seal discovered in Mohenjodaro, a major city-state in the Indus Valley Civilization puts forward a strong case for Shiva to be a God not of Indo-Aryan roots, but rooted in the people of the Indus valley, and the indigenous Dravidian and tribal peoples who inhabited the subcontinent. Shiva occupies an exalted, Supreme position in Hinduism, making the case that Hinduism is not an Aryan religion, but a synthesis of Aryan, Dravidian and other influences.
Apart from Shaivism, Siva also inspires Shaktism in Hinduism, which is strong in Assam and West Bengal, the eastern states of India. Shakti is the root power, force of Siva. Shakti, his first wife, is the female half of the Supreme Godhead. It is the root of the life force of every living being, and the entire Universe. The bond of absolute love, devotion and passion which embodies the existence of Siva and Uma, is considered the Ultimate Godhead form by itself, that a man is an incomplete half without a woman, who is the Ardhangini, (the Other Half) of his existence and power, and quite possibly his root.
The raw, virile masculine power-force of Siva is worshipped in Tantric Hinduism, especially with his "linga" or phallus being the icon of fertility, piety and the power of Siva.
The pilgrimage to Amarnath (just over the Chinese line of the Himalayas, deep in the highest mountains of the world, on Mount Kailash) and Anantnag in Kashmir are the most difficult and dangerous, yet exalted pilgrimages for Hindus of all sects, ethnic origins and classes. The glaciers in sacred caves forms the Sivalinga or the natural embodiment of his linga.
See also
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